Four months after Pendleton voters legalized marijuana sales, the city will get its first recreational pot shop.

Kind Leaf Pendleton has received both its state and city marijuana licenses, allowing it to open its doors Saturday at 8 a.m., according to Kind Leaf co-owner Brandon Krenzler.

Krenzler said it will be thrilling to open the store, especially after navigating a regulatory process that includes a site plan approval, background checks and thousands of dollars in licensing fees.

Besides the drug itself, Krenzler said Kind Leaf will also sell other marijuana products like edibles, topicals and vaping equipment.

Not including Kind Leaf’s three owners, Krenzler said the store will employ eight people.

In addition to being the first dispensary in Pendleton, Kind Leaf is also the first cannabis retailer in Umatilla County. The county and every other city in it have opted to ban marijuana sales.

Pendleton joins a handful of Eastern Oregon cities with a legal marijuana market, including Huntington, Sumpter and La Grande, although the latter only allows medical marijuana.

Pendleton has proven to be attractive to prospective marijuana business owners — three other recreational marijuana stores are in the process of trying to open stores.

Kind Leaf is located at 1733 S.W. Court Ave.

Bryson Thurman is finding the path toward opening his own marijuana shop a lot more onerous than Kind Leaf did.

Having applied for a conditional use permit to build Thur’s Smoke Shop, recreational cannabis store, at 1292 S.W. Tutuilla Road, Thurman faced a second Pendleton Planning Commission meeting with vocal criticism of the shop from local property owners.

The commission approved Thurman’s permit, but not before hearing an hour of testimony from the audience that mostly questioned Thur’s proximity to a bus stop and neighborhood children as well as its propensity to attract traffic to the area.

At least 25 people testified against Thur’s, compared to the two people in addition to the applicant who voiced their support for the store. But Thurman was able to utilize something his opposition couldn’t — an attorney.

Corinne Celko of the Emerge Law Group, a Portland firm that specializes in marijuana law, provided most of the arguments on Thurman’s behalf.

Celko said Thurman had complied with all of the aspects of state and city law and even went beyond by agreeing to put fencing around his shop, designing a sign without any marijuana imagery or references and reducing his hours of operation.

Celko’s arguments didn’t convince his opposition, which mainly consisted of nearby property owners, the Pendleton School District and Mid Columbia Bus Co.

Midco manager Mark Parm said moving the bus stop away from the area to accommodate Thur’s would send the wrong message in a city with declining school enrollment.

“We’re supporting the wrong thing here, in putting the kids out and having a negative effect on them, forcing them to change their lives to allow this, and that’s wrong,” he said.

After the public comment period closed, the commission voted 4-1 to approve Thurman’s permit, with commissioner Vincent Papol voting against and commissioners Terry Clarke and Ryan DeGrofft absent.

Despite his success with the commission, Thurman may not be out of the woods yet. Those who testified against Thur’s can appeal the commission’s decision to the Pendleton City Council within 14 days of the meeting.

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Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836.